Meghan Markle’s first wedding, to producer Trevor Engelson, was a barefoot beach ceremony at a Jamaican resort (there were also drunken wheelbarrow races). When she marries Prince Harry, by contrast, she’ll be snared by a web of royal protocol and tradition so dense that Buckingham Palace has to employ offices full of experts to uphold it. Here are a few of the highlights.

A wedding approval, on calfskin, by the Queen “NOW KNOW YE that We have consented and do by these Presents signify Our Consent to the contracting of Matrimony between Our Most Dearly Beloved Grandson Prince Henry Charles Albert David of Wales, K.C.V.O., and Rachel Meghan Markle,” reads the Queen’s formal announcement of her grandson’s union. If that seems like a stiff welcome to the family, under the

Succession to the Crown Act, Harry must have the Queen’s permission to marry — without it, he loses his place in line for the crown, as do his children and his children’s children in perpetuity. Harry is sixth in line to the throne, so Markle is one very large plane crash away from becoming Queen of the Commonwealth. But the U.K. has no shortage of mass graves caused by disreputable contenders to the throne, so they’re protective of who is allowed in the inner circle.
The ‘Instrument of Consent’, the Queen’s formal consent to Prince Harry’s marriage to Meghan Markle.Photo by Victoria Jones WPA/Getty Images

Let them eat fruitcake In the land of eel pie, haggis and black pudding, it’s fitting that the royals’ traditional wedding “treat” is fruit cake. If many of us find it, you know, disgusting, it nonetheless has a long shelf life, which has allowed royal couples to send out tins of wedding cake as a keepsake. In the days of empire, a fruit cake was also a great way to boast: The hodgepodge of ingredients included contributions from every realm that flew the Union Jack (Canada typically contributed the flour). Harry’s brother, father and grandmother certainly kept to tradition, serving elaborate multi-tiered fruit cakes at their weddings. But Harry and Meghan will not be going with a non-perishable brick of candied fruit. Instead, they’ve reportedly commissioned a sponge cake iced in buttercream.

Just because it looks pretty doesn’t mean this royal fruitcake tastes any good.Timothy Clary/AFP/Getty Images

Expect lots of silly hats There are dozens of both spoken and unspoken fashion rules at a royal wedding: No cleavage, nude tights, no shoes that can’t handle cobblestones; for men, morning suits or military regalia. But the most obvious sign of a royal wedding is the sea of hats. While most of the West abandoned hats after the the Second World War, the royal family has clung to them so tightly that, in the words of British fashion writer Hilary Alexander, Queen Elizabeth II is now the “most famous hat-wearer in the entire world.” In a ceremony where practically every stitch of clothing is governed by royal protocol, hats are also a unique way for guests to stand out from the crowd.

Prince Andrew’s daughters may not be famous outside England â but we’ve all seen their (very silly) hats.Photo by Chris Jackson/Getty Images

The bouquet isn’t tossed, it gets placed at the Grave of the Unknown Warrior In 1923, a bride walking to the altar at Westminster Abbey suddenly stopped and laid her bouquet at the Grave of the Unknown Warrior, located on the floor of the church. That bride was Elizabeth Bowes-Lyon, the future Queen Mother. Her gesture was in memory of her brother Fergus, who was killed at the 1915 Battle of Loos, but she began a royal tradition that has lasted four generations. Markle is getting married 40 kilometres west of the Abbey at Windsor Castle, but it’s expected that her bouquet will be conveyed to the grave — particularly since that her new husband is himself a war veteran. A similar tradition exists in Russia, where Moscow’s Tomb of the Unknown Soldier features a regular procession of newly married couples laying their bouquets in tribute to the dead of the Second World War. Also, like all royal bouquets, Markle’s will include a sprig of myrtle from a plant that originally belonged to Queen Victoria.

The Duchess of Cambridge was among the royals who have laid their wedding bouquet’s on the grave of the unknown warrior in Westminster Abbey.Peter Macdiarmid/Getty Images